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Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Greg Gaines’ life has just been turned upside down by his own mother. Greg has spent his entire high school career trying to fly under the radar. He’s neither unpopular nor popular. Greg has his best friend Earl and that’s all he needs. It’s taken him a lot of time and energy to reach this status and his mother ruins it all with her one request: rekindle an old friendship with Rachel because she has leukemia.

Greg’s not sure about being friends with Rachel. First, she hates him. Second, how do you cheer up someone who is dying? But his mom’s not giving up, so he’s forced to spend time with Rachel. Soon, it’s not only Greg visiting Rachel but Earl, too. They confide in her about the top-secret films they have been making. When Rachel decides to give up her fight against cancer, Earl and Greg set out to make her one final movie. Making this final movie will teach them more than they ever thought possible.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I want to say I absolutely loved Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, but I didn’t. I was really surprised about that. I’ve been hearing about this book forever and since a movie version is coming out, I expected it to be exceptional. It was good. If it hadn’t made me laugh at times, it would have been just okay.

The story is narrated by Greg. It’s him writing a book about his experience with ill Rachel. It starts with him explaining his role in his high school social hierarchy. He gives you a lot of past social history. I kept wondering why. It wasn’t that it wasn’t interesting, it just didn’t seem to be going anywhere at the time. It took a long time to get to the actual Rachel part of the story and to see where all the history was leading. I was starting to get bored.

Earl saved the story in my opinion. He was incredibly funny. He made Greg funny. Their conversations could be kind of vulgar at times, but they definitely made me laugh. If it weren’t for their interactions, I don’t think I would have liked the book. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Me and Earl and the Dying Girl might be one of those rare books that makes a better movie than book.

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I’ve been wanting to read this book before the movie comes out! I was kinda hesitant cause they say it has no romance? And I love romance in books. 🙂 Sad that this book didn’t meet your expectations. It sucks when that happens. 🙁

No, no real romance. It wasn’t horrible or anything. It was just missing something. Maybe the romance is it. I know tons of people like the book, so maybe it was just me. I would still see the movie, though. I think it really will be better than the book probably.